


Sunset Curve

by Musical_Fangirl089



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Bi!Flynn, Bi!Kayla, Bi!Reggie, Child Neglect, Except Nick and Carrie, F/F, Flynn has two moms, Gay!Alex, Gay!Willie, I keep adding tags and I'm not sorry, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Inspired by Lemonade Mouth (2011), Lesbian!Carrie, Litterally no straight couples, Luke can’t communicate, M/M, Nick is mostly a side-character I'm sorry, Pan/Ace!Luke, Questioning!Julie, Reggie has a sister, Sunset Curve, THEY’RE AWESOME, Trans!Nick, Willie is the human embodiment of organised chaos, neither can Reggie, no beta we die like men, no one is straight, they're family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26512090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Musical_Fangirl089/pseuds/Musical_Fangirl089
Summary: Reggie was sick of his parents arguing, sick of having to look after his little sister.Luke was sick of not being listened to, sick of being summed up as nothing more than a trouble-maker.Julie was sick of feeling sad, of living her life without music because of the painful memories attached to it.Alex was sick of his parents, of seemingly the entire world telling him he wasn’t normal because to him he was completely fine.None of them planned to get detention (well maybe Luke) but it turned out to be the best thing to happen to the ragtag group of four.Alone, their passing faces in the hallways.Together, they’re a force to be reckoned with.And they’re not backing down anytime soon.(Lemonade Mouth AU)
Relationships: Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn/Julie Molina, Kayla/Carrie (Julie and The Phantoms), Luke Patterson/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Nick/Carrie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 42
Kudos: 350





	1. Detention

_ Poets _

_ Geniuses _

_ Revolutionaries _

_ Sunset Curve has been called all of these things.  _

_ But the real story of how our band came to be is a mystery to them all. I wonder if they’d believe it?  _

_ If I told them that it all started in detention. My name is Luke Patterson, and  _ ~~_ I am the leader of Sunset Curve _ ~~ _~~.~~ Fine, I am a member of Sunset Curve - But I started it.  _

Luke would be lying if he said he didn’t mean to get detention. He just didn’t mean to drag Reggie into it. The two best friends sat next to each other on the bleachers, watching ‘Dirty Candy’ perform some song Luke was barely listening to and praying it would end. A majority of the students felt the same. It was cool to just sit and watch something, and some students were really into it. Not Luke or Reggie. To distract himself from the mind-numbing music, Luke resolved to tapping his head into Reggie’s shoulder. 

Luke wasn’t popular in school, he never wanted to be. And he was shit at sports. Instead, he was the class clown who played ‘Wonderwall’ at the few parties he was invited to. His best friend, Reggie, was his partner in crime. It had gotten to the point where when one of them got detention, the teacher would just give the other one too. It was safer for everyone. The last time Reggie got detention and Luke didn’t, people got hurt. Not severely, but there was a fire extinguisher involved. It had been referred to as ‘The Incident’ ever since. 

“I’ll tell them what they want, just make it stop!” Luke whispered to Reggie overdramatically, making him laugh quietly. 

“She’s good, you can’t deny,” Reggie told him as he kept lightly headbutting Reggie’s shoulder. “Just that the lyrics are awful.” Luke rested his chin on Reggie’s shoulder, so he spoke directly into Reggie’s ear. 

“ _ Exactly _ , it’s the lyrics that are torture, Reg.” Reggie forced back the shudder from Luke’s hot breath, keeping his attention on ‘Dirty Candy’ as their performance came to a close. Luke turned to see them bowing and smirked, grabbing his phone and speakers from his bag. 

“Luke?” Reggie asked warily, but Luke was already up and rushing down as the principal began the announcements. Reggie followed Luke, because of course he would. Reggie would follow Luke into an active volcano, not that he’d ever say such a thing. 

“Hey! Ready for some real music?” Luke called out, before hitting play on his phone and ‘Can’t Hold Us’ by Macklemore began blasting through the gym. Reggie grinned to himself, beginning to clap in time to the beat with Luke, before rapping along to the karaoke track. The students began to stir, Reggie and Luke’s infectious energy seeping through the crowd. 

It reached Julie and Flynn pretty quickly. The two girls sat next to each other, making fun of Carrie’s performance. Neither really knew Luke or Reggie as anything other than the class clowns from Flynn’s English class. But seeing them singing the chorus to ‘Can't Hold Us’ almost got Julie singing along.

_ Almost. _

Even after a year, she couldn’t bring herself to sing, or play. She could barely listen to music. And a year without music was easily the worst year of her life, only made worse by the fact she lost her mom. Luke and Reggie’s performance was a small bit of joy within the dark. Their joy and pure excitement easily rushed through Julie, getting her to clap and stomp to the beat with Flynn. 

“Those two are so gonna get detention,” Flynn told her. Julie nodded with a grin as she watched Reggie holding onto the railings at the front of the bleachers, then jumping off. It was then that the principal walked back in with a megaphone. 

“This disturbance is over! Mr. Hollow and Mr. Patterson. My office.  _ Now _ .” The crowd began muttering as Reggie and Luke headed after the principal, Luke rushing to grab his phone and speaker. “Everyone else, go to class. This assembly is over.”

“Told you,” Flynn said as everyone got up and began heading to class. “But it was awesome.”

“I know, you who knew those two could sing?” Julie said, heading off the bleachers and into the halls. “Or rap, for that matter. Like, I knew Reggie could talk fast, but not that fast.”

“Bet he could rap ‘Guns and Ships’,” Flynn said as they stopped at her locker. Across the hall, they saw the new kid with blonde hair get pushed to the ground by Carrie, the lead singer of ‘Dirty Candy’. 

“I am amazing,” Carrie told him, crouching down to where he was lying on the floor and covering his head. “So, next time  _ you _ move out  _ my _ way. Got it?” The kid nodded limply before Carrie walked off with her group. Flynn and Julie shared a look before helping the kid up. 

“I’m sorry about  _ her _ ,” Julie told him, sitting him up by the wall. “The school’s a lot nicer than she is.”

“Thanks,” He replied. “I’m Alex, by the way.”

“Julie, and this is Flynn,” Julie said as Flynn waved at Alex. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, uh.” Alex scratched the back of his head as him and Julie stood up. “Do you know where room 308 is?”

“Oh sure,” Flynn replied. “I have Mr. Fletchley last period. Turn left at the end of that hallway and keep going until you reach the cafeteria, then turn right and it’ll be down there.”

“Thanks,” Alex smiled at them, and they smiled back as he walked off. Flynn opened her locker again and got her Chemistry book out as the bell rang. 

Alex glanced down at his timetable. He didn’t have Mr. Fletchley on his timetable, but maybe it was the same class but different teachers? That happened sometimes at his old school. But his old school was a lot smaller. So far, the biggest change to living in LA was just how much _ bigger _ everything was. 

He turned to the hall that the girl with cornrows told him. What was her name? It began with F, he knew that. Anyway, he looked down at the numbers on the doors, looking for 308, but all the numbers began with 2. He walked down the hall again, his footsteps quickening with his breath. 

_ Clam down! Just ask someone, it’s your first day you’re bound to get lost.  _ Alex stopped and leant against a row of lockers and took a deep breath, closing his eyes and picturing something peaceful. That was the advice he had gotten from Youtube, at least. His parents had refused to get him a therapist, like he asked, saying that it was all inside his head.  _ Yeah, that’s why it’s called ‘mental’ illness.  _ Shaking his head again, he took another deep breath. The idea was to calm himself down, not get angry over conversations that had already happened 

“Excuse me.” Alex opened his eyes to see a teacher walking towards him. Alex tried to calm his breath again as he opened his mouth to speak, but the teacher simply held their hand up, shutting Alex up. “Thought you could skip, huh?”  
“N-no! I’m new. Alex -Alex Williams. I’m kinda lost-”

“That’s what they all say,” The teacher said, clearly not listening to Alex. His face paled when the teacher handed him a yellow detention slip before escorting him back to class. 

_ Detention?  _ This was now how Alex wanted the day to go. First, he almost had an anxiety attack before he even left the house. Then he got pushed to the floor by some prissy rich girl. Then he got lost and now he had detention! It couldn’t have gone worse if he tried. 

Julie saw the new kid, Alex, get escorted down the hall and shifted in her seat. She got her phone out from under her thigh and opened up her texts, seeing that Flynn had already messaged her about Alex. 

_ Flynn😘 _

_ Have U seen Alex? _

_ I think I sent im 2 the wrong room _

_ him* _

_ Jules💎 _

_ Yeeeaaahhh _

_ I just saw him and Mr. Wells walk down the hall _

_ U told him turn left, right? _

_ Flynn _

_ … _

_ I said right…. _

_ Crap!  _

Before Julie could reassure Flynn that it was okay, someone cleared their throat above her. Gingerly, she looked up to see Ms. Rodriguez looking at her with a stern expression and one hand out for Julie’s phone. She gave the phone up and got a yellow ‘detention’ slip in return before Ms. Rodriguez walked away. Julie sunk into her seat with a melancholy expression. 

Alex headed to the basement, like his slip said, and found the hallway to be full of students. Was he in the right place? There couldn’t be this many people in detention, could there? 

“Fellow rebel?” Alex turned to see two guys, the same ones who pulled the stunt during assembly, both grinning at him. The dark haired one had his hands shoved into his leather jacket pockets with a flannel shirt wrapped around his waist. The other boy had a white sleeveless vest on with some band logo and a hoodie. 

“I-I guess,” Alex replied. He’d never consider himself a ‘rebel’, sure some kids from his old town had called him a ‘heathen’ but he didn’t exactly fit that description either. “Alex.”

“I’m Luke, this is Reggie.” Luke patted Reggie’s shoulder before pulling Alex down the hall with his spare arm wrapped around his shoulders. Alex looked around at all the different classrooms and what the students were doing. “Welcome to the Underground,” Luke told him with a reluctant grin. “Anything that isn’t to do with Trevor Wilson comes down here.”

“Basically anything that isn’t sports or ‘Dirty Candy’,” Reggie added. 

“Can one guy really do that?” Alex asked, glancing from the sorely lacking AV club to the two guys leading him through the maze of forgotten clubs. Luke and Reggie nodded. 

“When you’re as rich as Trevor Wilson, you can.” 

The trio stopped by a door that said ‘Music’ on it, but the letter had faded so it said ‘u ic’. Just outside of it was a vending machine for a brand of lemonade called ‘Sunset Lemonade’. Luke shrugged and grabbed one, the other two boys following suit and all taking a sip at the same time. Their faces scrunched up before Reggie let out a laugh.

“Your face!” He pointed to Luke. “You should see your face!”

“Not like you’re any better,” Luke teased before they headed inside.

Alex took a seat at the back in the corner, whilst Reggie and Luke took seats closer to the front, looking rather at home. Luke even kicked his feet up! There was another kid there too, a girl with dark skin and frizzy hair that sort of helped Alex earlier. The teacher explained the rules, basically they could only sit there, until she threw rags at them and told them to clean up whilst she went to Principal Lessa. 

“She can’t make us clean,” Luke said, his head leaning back as he inspected a damp spot on the ceiling. Julie, not wanting to get in anymore trouble, began cleaning almost immediately. “It’s cruel and unusual punishment.”

“Welcome to High School,” Reggie joked, leaning his head back to look at Luke upside down. 

“This school is kinda messed up,” Alex said, standing up to help Julie clean. 

“Can you guys please be quiet and just do what Mrs. Harrison asked?” She said, trying not to snap at them. “I don’t want another detention because of you two.” She gave a pointed look at Luke and Reggie, who feigned innocence. 

“Why us? What have we ever done?” Luke asked. 

“Weren’t you the guys who interrupted the assembly to cover some song?” Alex asked, moving a box to uncover a drum kit. 

“We were simply detoxing the student body’s ears from the broken chords of ‘Dirty Candy’,” Luke replied as Alex inspected the drum kit. 

“Hey, some of this stuff is still good.” Reggie and Luke shared a look before going over to Alex. Julie sighed to herself before moving away from the boys and cleaning the teacher’s desk. Luke picked up a bass and called for Reggie, throwing the instrument at his friend. Luckily, Reggie caught it. 

“Dude, you know I have bad hand-eye coordination!”

“You caught it just fine,” Luke replied, picking up a guitar and beginning to strum. “Hey, Alex, right? Know any good drum beats?”

Alex grinned like a kid on Christmas and rushed to sit at the skins, picking up two drumsticks. 

The three kept messing about with the instruments as Julie cleaned the desk not far from them. She had her back to them and was fighting off a smile as the beat began to seep into her veins. It had been so long since she last felt so alive just from a beat and melody. 

Alex managed to calm Reggie and Luke down enough to do a drum fill to start a song, that’s when Julie lost it. And, with a smile, sang for the first time in a year. 

She wasn’t entirely sure what she was singing about, just music in general. She found herself dancing around the room as the boys played. There was no past, or future to worry about. It was just them, and that was enough. It was more than enough. 

“I got the music back inside of me! Every melody and chord.” Julie somehow found herself standing on a desk, facing the trio as she sang, doing small shimmies as dancing and grinning like a madwoman. To be fair, they were just as excited to be playing. Luke and Reggie were singing with her, providing a nice harmony to her melody. “Can’t stop the music back inside my soul. And it’s stronger than before!”

She hopped down and grabbed a bright pink boa and wrapped it around Alex’s shoulders as they laughed and sang. “Don’t care if everybody’s watching, silence ain’t an option. It’s out of my hands.” Next was Reggie. She had found a red fedora with a fake tiger pattern around it and stuck it on his head as he played. “I feel the beat takin’ me higher! Baby, this is fire. This is my jam.” She turned on her heel to Luke, holding a cowboy hat behind her back. “And something’s feeling different in the hallways. Something’ looking, looking like it’s changed.” Like a sneak attack, she put the hat on Luke’s head and moved to his other side from behind. “I’ve been moving to the rhythm for the whole day. A million lyrics running through my brain.” 

Reggie kicked an old mic stand towards Julie as they sang the bridge. She took it and grinned, singing into the mic that wasn’t there. Julie picked up the stand and began walking to Reggie like she was a predator about to do a sneak attack. But instead of attacking him, she put the stand in front of his face, silently asking him to rap. Which he did gladly. 

“ Yeah we got the music. Back inside let’s do this. Back like it's exclusive. Wavy like a cruise ship. Look at Julie go. She all in the zone. Headlining this show. Mic drop and we go- ahhh. Boom cat, boom boom cat. That’s the sound that you get with a marching band like- Eeeeehhh.” He turned to Alex. “Let me hear the drumline like eeeeehhhh-” Before sending a smirk to Luke. “That baseline cray.” Luke chuckled to himself as Reggie carried on, Julie dancing the whole time. “This one is ridiculous, woah no sir, they can’t handle this, no. We on top of the world, never look down, We got the melody back can’t stop now!”

As the song came to an end, the boys were riding out their euphoria and didn’t see Julie sulk into her seat. “We are incredible!” Luke exclaimed. He turned quickly to Alex. “You’re awesome! How long have you been playing?”

“Since I was ten,” Alex replied with a shrug, before adding. “I heard it helped get rid of anxiety.”

“You have got  _ skills _ ,” Luke told him before turning to Reggie. “Okay, I knew you could rap, and play bass. But I didn’t know you could sound so good! Reg, bro, we could actually do this.” 

“Do what?” Alex asked, glancing between Reggie and Luke’s faces, both were grinning wildly, a crazy idea in their eyes. 

“Start our own band,” Reggie replied, facing him. “You want in?”

“Hell yeah!”

“Julie-” Reggie cut himself when he noticed the girl wasn’t there anymore. He turned to Luke. “Her voice was incredible-”

“I have a great voice too,” Luke replied. “And I can write songs. And there have been plenty of three person bands.”

“Name one,” Alex replied. Luke thought for a moment before shaking his head. 

“Just because I can’t think of any doesn’t mean they don’t exist. And anyway, people need to hear us!” Luke jumped onto one of the desks, scaring Alex and Reggie slightly. “Rising Star. We will have gained a following by Rising Star -and we will win it! That’ll show Lessa, and my folks. And how can your folks get mad when you’ve won Rising fucking Star!” Reggie shifted slightly, hope rising in his chest. If there was one thing Luke was gifted at -besides Music- it would be inspirational speeches. He could get anyone to do anything if he just put enough heart behind it. But then again Reggie was  _ really _ biased. 

“What’s Rising Star?” Alex asked with his hand raised. 

“Only the best talent competition in LA,” Luke replied, jumping off the desk, scaring Alex and Reggie once again. 

“Dude, you’re gonna give me a heart attack,” Reggie told him. “Please stop.” 

Luke sent him a cheeky grin before turning back to Alex. “The winner gets a  _ record deal _ .”

“But Trevor Wilson is a judge,” Reggie said. “Dirty Candy practically has it in the bag.” 

“But we could show everyone around here that money isn’t what gets you places, alright? It’s-it’s hard work. And talent-”

“And connections,” Reggie said. “Which we don’t have.”

“When did you become a pessimist?”

“I’m a realist,” Reggie replied. “Because, really we don’t stand a chance.”

“You were all for it just a few minutes ago,” Alex said, moving from the drum kit reluctantly. “But I kinda agree. It's a cool idea, don't get me wrong. But I just got here, I need to settle in before I join any band.”

“Guys, just-just rehearse, then. I'll write some songs, grab a few I've already got and we go from there. Please?”

Reggie was convinced by that point, and after Alex glanced at the drum kit he turned to Reggie and Luke with a smile. “I’m in.”


	2. Home Sweet Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex explores his new city and almost gets runover  
> Luke and Reggie's hangout is claimed by a recurring thrid-wheel  
> And Julie finally lets music back into her life

_ How did Sunset Curve start? Weirdly.  _

_ We didn’t all fit together, not at first.  _

_ Me and Luke did, only because we’d known each other for years. _

_ Julie wasn’t even part of the band at the start.  _

_ And Alex….he had a bunch of issues to sort out.  _

Alex woke the next morning to a bright sun streaming through his curtains. His first day was over, weird that it was a Friday but his parents wanted him to start as soon as he could. And he couldn’t argue since he wanted out of the house since he moved. After a quick shower and changing into a shirt and jeans, he headed downstairs to find his mom making breakfast whilst his dad was already at work. 

“Morning,” She smiled at him. The smile didn’t reach her eyes. 

“Morning,” He smiled back, pulling out a bowl and some cereal. His mom swatted his hand away. “What’s wrong? I’m just making breakfast.”

“I can do that, darling,” She replied. Alex glanced at the bowl, then his mom before sitting down at the table as his mom made him a bowl. Biting the inside of his lip, he began drumming out a beat on the table, but stopped when his mom sent him a stern look as she placed the bowl in front of him. 

“Sorry,” He mumbled out. Part of him wanted to tell her about his first day, since dad took up dinner talking about his new job, but how would she react to him sort of joining a band? And she wasn’t exactly happy he got a detention, another reminder might not be the best idea. But nothing much happened at school other than that. It was just as boring as back home. “I’m gonna do some exploring today, if that’s okay.”

“Of course,” She smiled politely at him. “Just don’t stay out too late. You need to have an early night for church tomorrow.” Alex nodded as he finished and put the bowl in the sink. He grabbed a pair of trainers and his fanny pack and headed out, finding central LA pretty quickly. 

The first thing he noticed was how busy everything was, even though it was barely ten O’Clock. The streets were filled with people, and Alex found himself almost folding in on himself. Everything was so loud and vibrant, nothing was dull in LA. It was kind of cool, even though he probably needed to adjust to everything. He felt like Dorothy when she landed in Oz. 

“Watch out!” Alex turned too late and ended up sprawled on the ground, pain erupting from the middle of his back and shoulder blades. “Crap, I am so sorry, dude.” There was a hand in front of his face, offering to help him up. Alex took it and found a guy standing in front of him, wearing a helmet and a skateboard in his free hand. The boy looked to be around seventeen, with long brown hair and a tye-dye shirt with jeans on. But it was enough to make Alex’s heart stop for a moment. “Are you okay? I am so  _ so _ sorry, I wasn’t looking.”

“Alex.” He swallowed hard and forced himself to stop staring at the skater. “I’m-I’m Alex.” He awkwardly put his hand out for the boy to shake. He chuckled at Alex gently, shaking his hand. 

“Willie,” He replied. “I haven’t seen you around before.”

“I-I’m new,” Alex said, letting his hands drop into his jean pockets. “Just moved here a few days ago, actually.”

“Sick! Well, you need a tour guide, right?” Willie asked, putting his board on the ground with a soft thud. “I’ll happily volunteer. I know LA like the back of my hand.”

“Really? Thanks. The only places I’ve seen are my house and my school.” God, that sounded so sad.  _ Stop making such a fool of yourself!  _ But Willie just laughed, snapping Alex out of his thoughts. Willie laughed unapologetically, loudly and Alex decided it was the best thing he’d ever heard. 

“We gotta change that,” Willie told him, pulling him down the street. 

Luke groaned into his pillow as his dad pulled his blanket away. “You need to keep up a good sleep schedule.”

“But it’s Saturday!” Luke whined. His dad huffed and pulled him up so he sat on his bed, wearing a pair of grey boxers and a white vest. “I wanna sleep!”

“It’s almost eleven, Luke,” His dad sighed. “Besides, don’t you have homework you need to do? Or something with Reggie?”

“Nah,” Luke yawned, standing up and stretching. “I’ve done all my homework,” He lied. “And Reg and me are hitting the skatepark at one.”

“I didn’t know Reggie could ride a skateboard.”

“He can’t,” Luke chuckled fondly. “Usually he just sits on the swings nearby.”

“Anyway, get dressed.” And with that, his dad left. Luke huffed but pulled out some clothes for the day. He was not a morning person, and he didn’t need to be. He wouldn’t have a 9-5 job, he’d be playing to sold out arenas till midnight. No rockstar was a morning person, anyway. 

Before he knew it, Reggie was knocking at his door with a dark haired little girl. She had her hair in braids and she had on denim overalls with a floral top underneath. She grinned up at Luke and tackled him in a hug, wrapping her arms around his hips. Reggie sent Luke an apologetic look. “Hey, Dotty,” Luke grinned down at the girl, kneeling to her height, “You good?”

“Yeah!” She grinned, letting him go. “Reggie says we’re going to the park! Can you teach me more tricks?”

“Course, just gotta grab my board,” He said, ruffling her hair. The trio headed down to the park as soon as Luke got his board. Reggie and Dot had said hello to Luke’s parents before they headed off, so Luke wasn’t running off again. Dot was skating ahead of them, not going very fast but faster than the two boys' slow walk. 

“I’m sorry,” Reggie told him. “Mom and dad were practically at each other’s throats and I- I couldn’t let her see or hear that.” 

Luke wrapped his arm around Reggie’s shoulders. “Relax, I’d rather be forced to teach Dot how to do a kickflip than either of you be at home. Besides, we’re not gonna be able to hit the skatepark as much when we start rehearsing, will we?”

“Right. Of course,” Reggie said, forcing a smile on his face. Luke pouted at him slightly. 

“Hey, cheer up. We’re still gonna hang out. You can’t get rid of me that easily,  _ dork _ .” Luke ruffled Reggie’s hair and shoved him forwards playfully, both boys chuckling. 

“How am I a dork? You’re the one who doodles on the front of every notebook you own.”

“How does that make me a dork?”

“What makes  _ me _ a dork, then?”

“Hurry up!” Dot exclaimed from the corner, she had stopped and had her hands on her hips giving the boys a pointed look. The sight alone made them both crack up as they walked towards her. Reggie wrapped an arm around her shoulders, squeezing her into a side hug. 

“Never change, Dotty, please.”

Julie woke up bright and early, went for her morning run. When she got back she stood in her backyard, looking at her mother’s music den. She swallowed hard, looking at the large oak barn doors. They hadn’t been touched in what felt like forever. None of it had. 

The door creaked slightly as she opened it, the light streaming through the upper windows, making spots of light on the floor. There were still a bunch of instruments in there, and chairs on the ceiling, and bags of random stuff up on the second floor. Her mom always called it the balcony. On the other side of the room was a grand piano that filled Julie with a bittersweet sort of feeling. 

She took a seat at the piano, he sheets still there from the last time she was in there, the night before her mother’s death. Death sounded so final to Julie, so definite. She hated it. So, she pushed the thought away and played the melody on the sheet in front of her.

“Here’s the one thing I want you to know, you got somewhere to go. Life’s a test, yes, but you go toe-to-toe. You don’t give up, no you grow.”

Julie kept playing, letting the notes, chords and lyrics wash over her and imagining her mother right next to her, like before. Her mom moved the sheets as they harmonised on the chorus. The memories weren’t painted in sadness, or even bittersweet, it was like remembering the perfect summer. She was at peace as she played, smiling to herself as her mom corrected a note on the sheet. 

When Julie finished, she looked at the sheet to find she had finished the song, a pencil by the sheet music that had been worn down. 

“Hey.” Julie looked up to see Flynn walking in with a soft smile. “Carlos told me you’d be out here. Never thought I’d find you in here again.”

“Neither did I…..” Julie admitted. 

“Are you okay? I mean, you got detention. You’re the golden girl! And-and I’ve been thinking all night. I might have drank seven sodas….But I need to get this out.”

“Flynn I-”

“It’s my turn to talk,” Flynn told her. Julie sat back and closed her mouth, deciding to tell her after Flynn made her peace. “You can’t give up music! Your music’s a gift, that would be a tragedy. So, you’re basically, like, canceling Christmas. And I love christmas!”

“Flynn-”  
“When we were six we promised to be in a band together! Double-trouble!”

“I never agreed to that name,” Julie told her, eager to show the music sheets but Flynn stopped her again. 

“That’s not the point. Music’s always been our thing. You can’t give it up just because it hurts. And hurting sometimes makes music better. You can’t give it up, you’ve been miserable all year long. The assembly was the first time I’ve seen you smile! Music as a hold on you and you can’t let it go. I won’t let you and-uh! Do you have any soda? My head hurts.”

“Can I talk now?” Julie asked sweetly. “I just played the piano and sang again.” Flynn went wide-eyed as Julie continued. “Well, I sang in detention. It was weird. Alex can play drums. And Reggie and Luke are awesome on guitar. And….it just kinda happened. But when we stopped….I was flooded with memories of singing with mom and it hurt so much. But then I woke up this morning and I realised….That’s why I should sing again. To keep her memory alive. I wrote too. I finished the song.” 

Flynn sat next to Julie and looked over the sheet music and smiled. “Jules….this is incredible. You are crazy talented.” Flynn gasped and grabbed Julie’s arm. “You should make a band with those boys!”

“I kinda already ditched them….besides I have no way to contact them- What are you doing?”

Flynn already had her phone out and was scrolling through Snapchat. “They’re in my English group chat, remember? Look, Reggie has his location on. Looks like they’re at some park-”

“Flynn we can’t just show up and ask to be in a band with them!”

“Yeah, it’d look weird,” She agreed, but turned to Julie with a mischievous grin. “We’ll wait until we know they’re doing a rehearsal then follow their geolocation!”

Julie sighed heavily. “You scare me sometimes.”

“I know,” Flynn replied, flicking her hair behind her shoulder. “My moms say it’s the revolutionary in me.”

“If anyone would start a rebellion, it would be you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments so far. And wow, almost 500 hits in under two days? That's the most I've ever gotten! Thanks so much. Also, I deleted the last chapter originally because I forgot to add some parts that were vital. It’s mostly unchanged so don’t worry. I won't be delteing any more (hopefully) Always remember to proof read people!


	3. Now Or Never

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julie and Flynn manage to get Julie into the band. Now, it's just a case of naming it -which leads to it's own issues.

_ Music was, and still is, my everything.  _

_ A year without it, Flynn was right when she said I didn’t really smile.  _

_ And when we all got together, actually as a band. We just clicked.  _

_ It was like we had all known each other for years before.  _

“Did you just  _ bite the skin _ ?” Alex asked Reggie with a look of mild horror. Reggie nodded as he casually peeled his orange. “It’s an orange, you don’t bite the skin of an orange!”

“Look at my nails,” Reggie replied, showing Alex his bitten down nails. “And I do not have anything sharp besides my teeth, so…” Alex gave him one last disgusted look as he went back to his sandwich. He had gone to Reggie’s house for their first official band rehearsal after Church. Turns out it was the perfect distraction. 

Luke headed over to the duo with a songbook and a grin. “Alright, I think I found the perfect one for us. Alex, it’s a pretty simple beat. Just go with it, yeah?”

“Can do,” He replied, sitting at the drums. Reggie put his peeled orange on a plate before picking up his bass.

“What song?”

“Now or Never,” Luke told him. With a grin, Luke began to play the two guitar riffs, before Alex counted them in and the song really began. 

The band had originally been Reggie’s idea, surprisingly. Luke had leapt at it the moment he got his own guitar. It was a second-hand acoustic one that he needed to tune, and it was too big for him. Reggie got his bass a few months later. That was also too big for him. But it didn’t matter. Because for as long as Reggie had been alive, he was always tapping out a beat, or a melody. It was why he got along with Luke so well. Sure, Reggie may not be the brightest, and social cues forever eluded him, and he had no clue what a healthy relationship even looked like whilst Luke was casually getting straight A’s, could talk to anyone he wanted, and had two loving parents who loved each other. But, at their cores, Luke and Reggie were the same. They both had music courses through their veins. It was the same for Alex. When he felt his world falling around him, he turned to music. He always turned to music and it had yet to fail him. 

“Don’t look down, cause we’re still rising up right now.” Julie found herself bobbing her head along to the beat, hearing Luke and Reggie sing with Alex undoubtedly on drums. Flynn was in front of her, with her phone out on Snapchat. 

“These guys are _ good _ ,” She told Julie, about to open the gate to the garden. Julie quickly stopped her. 

“You can’t just go into some else’s garden unprompted!”

“Right, got caught up in the whole thing.” Flynn knocked on the garden gate as Julie rolled her eyes. Flynn had always been her partner in crime, ever since they were little. When Flynn heard Julie sing for the first time, she instantly begged for them to make a band together. Flynn would’ve supplied the music through her DJing, whilst Julie sang. And they would’ve, but that was when Julie’s mom died. 

Before she could wallow in her sadness, the gate opened to reveal a little girl, no older than eight. “Who’re you?”

“Um, I’m Julie. This is Flynn.” They both waved at the small girl, who didn’t seem very bothered. “We’re here to talk to Reggie?” She didn’t mean to sound so unsure, it was probably just nerves. 

The little girl shrugged, turned her head and yelled for Reggie. The music stopped abruptly and Reggie yelled at the girl before trudging over, blinking slightly when he saw Julie standing there. “Hey, Julie. What are you doing here?”

“Well-”

“She played again yesterday and is ready to join your band,” Flynn answered for her. Julie glared slightly at Flynn, who smiled sweetly back. 

“Come in,” Reggie told them, ushering them into his garden. Alex was still sat at the drums, gently hitting them to try and get the right beat for the song with Luke’s help. “Guess who showed up.” The boys turned to see Julie and Flynn. 

“How’d you know where we were?” Luke asked her. Julie and Flynn shared a glance before Julie waved it off. 

“I heard you from down the street.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, just not the whole truth. 

“Anyway,” Flynn said, bringing the attention onto her as she wrapped an arm around Julie’s shoulders. “You guys sound good. But, you’d be killer with a certain vocalist I know who also shreds the piano.”

“Do you know anyone?” Reggie asked. The group looked at him with similar expressions until his mouth formed a ‘o’ shape. “Julie, you meant Julie. I knew that.” Luke nodded, clearly not believing him. 

“So, what do you say?” Flynn asked them with an eager grin, her arm still draped around Julie’s shoulders. 

“How do we know you’re not gonna run off again?” Luke asked. Julie shrugged. 

“Trust?”

Luke glanced at Alex and Reggie, before taking out a coin. “Heads, you’re in. Tails, you’re not. Okay?” Julie nodded and Luke flipped the coin. It spun in the air. Luke caught it and almost slapped it onto the back of his hand, before lifting his hand to show the coin. “Heads.”

“Yes!” Flynn pulled Julie into a tight hug, quickly being joined by Alex, then Reggie and finally Luke. When they pulled apart, Flynn was practically bouncing. “That’s so good because I already signed you guys up to play at the Halloween bash.”

“Wait, what?” Julie exclaimed as the boys let out cheers. Flynn sent her an apologetic look. “When did that happen?”

“When I got home yesterday I might have emailed Principal Lessa about helping some delinquents….use their energy for something more  _ productive _ . And I might have mentioned helping the new kid fit in. She was eating it all up.” 

“We got a gig! Think it, Boys -and girls- first we play dances, then clubs-” Luke said. 

“Get a million hits on youtube, release a hit album that goes platinum,” Julie continued.

“Release a Country Album that does surprisingly well,” Reggie added. They all looked at him. “....I shred on the banjo…”

“Then I will learn the fiddle,” Julie told him, giving him a fist bump. 

“Then we’re welcomed into the Rock’n’Roll hall of fame!” Luke exclaimed, like a small child on christmas. 

“But one of us isn’t there,” Reggie said. “Because we had a blowout in 2032.” Then he quietened his voice. “My money’s on Alex. He's just so sensitive-”

“I am  _ not _ !” Alex scoffed. 

“Fantasise all you want,” Flynn told them. “But that isn’t going to help when you’re onstage. So go, get rehearsing!” She ushered them back to their instruments. 

Another school day ended, and Julie made her way down to the basement with Reggie, since they had both just had Biology. “‘Home is Where My Horse is’?” She asked him with a smile. “Reggie, you don’t even own a horse.”

“I could,” Reggie defended himself. “You don’t know. Maybe after our fame has died down I'll buy a ranch. Sell chicken eggs and riding lessons.”

Julie struggled to hold in her laughter and Reggie's proud face. “I better get a discount on those riding lessons,” She told him as they turned the hall to the old music room. At the end of the hallway was the ‘Sunset’ lemonade machine. Both of them grabbed one each and Julie turned to Reggie with a surprised smile. “I thought it was only me that got one.”

“Nope, me, Alex and Luke got one each too.”

“So what is it? Like, our official badges or something?” Julie asked as they walked in. Luke was already sat on one of the student desks, his songbook in his lap as he scribbled words down. Alex was also there, jamming out so whatever was playing through his headphones. Flynn was sat at a desk, typing away on a laptop. Luke looked up at Julie and Reggie. 

“What’s our official badge?” He asked. The two held up their drinks as if giving toast. He chuckled at them as Alex took his headphones off and sat crossed-legged on the teacher’s desk. Julie took a seat and Reggie took the couch in the corner and lied across it. “So...first official order of business. Band name.” 

“Renegades of Revolution,” Flynn suggested. “Agents of chaos?”

“I don’t think that’s really us, Flynn,” Julie told her. 

“I’m gonna grab another lemonade,” Luke told them, heading out. 

“Rager Teenagers?” Reggie said. 

“Isn’t that a Troye Sivan song?” Alex asked. Reggie sunk slightly. 

“Maybe.”

“The Maniacs?” Julie suggested. 

“Back off the dance,” Luke said, walking in. 

“That’s a terrible name,” Reggie said. Luke rolled his eyes and thrust the flier in his hand towards the group. 

“No, it was on the door.” Flynn took the flier and glared at it. 

“Well, we’re not,” She said. “You guys can’t back down. I won’t let you.”

“We’re not backing down,” Luke reassured her. “Alright? It’s just a flier, we’ll be fine.”

The next day, at lunch, Julie and Flynn grabbed their lunch and took a table in the corner. “I still think ‘Renegades of Revolution’ was good.”

“But we’re not starting a revolution,” Julie told her. “We’re just a bunch of kids playing songs together. Nothing revolutionary about it. Crap.”

“What?”

Julie sighed as she looked at her tray. “I forgot a drink. I’ll be right back.”

“Have fun with Turbo Blast,” Flynn called after her, mocking the advert. “The drink of champions!” Julie rolled her eyes as she got her purse out and grabbed a drink. Before she could take it though, another hand swooped in and grabbed it. 

“Thanks,” Carrie grinned innocently. “My favourite.”

“Could I have that back-”

“You’re the lead singer of that new band, right?” Julie nodded lamely, reaching to take the drink again, but Carrie pulled it away. “Why don’t you belt one out for us? Or are you just going to run and cry like every other time.”

“Just...just leave me alone, Carrie.”

“C’mon,” Luke appeared behind Julie. “What’s going on?”

“We’re just making small talk,” Carrie said innocently. “Catching up, y’know.”

“Carrie, just leave her alone,” Reggie said, his arms folded. Behind them was Alex, who had his hands in his pockets. Flynn was storming over to them. 

“Oh, and you’re gonna make me?”

“She’s done nothing to you,” Alex piped up. Carrie ignored him and focused on Reggie. 

“So, if you’re not gonna make me? Who’s gonna make me?” Reggie was backing up, trying to diffuse the situation before Luke spoke up. Carrie turned with him and began walking towards him like a predator. “You? Yeah?” She laughed as she trapped him between her and a table. 

“Can’t we-can’t we talk this through?” Luke stumbled out. 

“No, we can’t.”

“Reg, Reggie- Reg, little help?” Reggie glanced between Carrie and Luke, before backing away. 

“No, I’m a lover, not a fighter.” 

Before Carrie could actually do any damage, Flynn got to her and tapped her on the shoulder. Carrie spun around with a deadly glare. “What?”

“One second,” Flynn said sweetly, taking a mouthful of ‘Sunset’ Lemonade, before spitting it directly in Carrie’s face. Luke rushed out to the others as they let out gasps and short chuckles at Carrie’s face and ruined white top. But it was short lived as some of Carrie’s lackeys ran over to avenge their leader. Before anyone could actually get hurt, though, Principal Lessa rushed over. 

“Whoa! Break it up! Step away from the puddle people!” They all backed up, standing in a circle around Principal Lessa. “What is going on here?”

“Principal Lessa,” Carrie said, in a sweet innocent voice. “I went to get a Turbo Blast. And, and they just started threatening me-” She was then muted by the group's objections, but quickly silenced by Lessa. “And then Sunset Curve over here,” She said, motioning towards Flynn. “Spits all over my brand new shirt. This is  _ designer _ ! My father will sue-”

“Calm down it’s a shirt,” Flynn replied. 

“That probably costs more than your house,” Carrie fired back. Everyone began talking over each other as Lessa ignored them, writing up detention slips for the band, newly called ‘Sunset Curve’. 

“She didn’t even listen to us!” Flynn exploded. “I know Carrie’s always been the golden child but- _ jesus _ ! This entire school revolves around her whims because  _ daddy will sue _ .”

“She’s like Malfoy,” Luke muttered. They were all sat in detention, no one really in the mood to play, mostly just complain. “Except her dad’s not gonna get in trouble for being a nazi.”

“What can we do about it anyway?” Alex asked, his leg bouncing. “We’re just a bunch of nobodies.”

“We can start a revolution!” Flynn said excitedly. 

“Flynn-”

“At the dance! After your first song, you can bring me on and we’ll show everyone what’s going on and that it’s not okay. When one person speaks up, it gives everyone else the courage to as well.”

“Okay, but what if we’re the only ones that care?” Reggie asked as he tried to balance a drumstick on his nose as he laid across three desks. The drumstick fell on the floor and Alex picked it up for him. 

“Trust me, we’re not,” Flynn told them. “She’s been awful to everyone she deems inferior. The entire school keeps treating anything that isn’t to do with Trevor Wilson as nothing, pointless. But we can show them!”

“I’m liking this idea,” Luke admitted, smiling at Flynn. “Okay, so what? We just bring you up and you rant?”

“No, a song. It’s what you guys are best at, right?”

“You want us to write a revolution song?” Julie asked her with a bewildered look. “What? ‘Do You Hear The People Sing?’ kinda thing or-”

“Kinda,” Flynn admitted. “If anyone can do it, it’s you two. Please? We could actually make a difference. Be more than faces in the yearbook.”

Luke turned to the others with a wide smile. “C’mon, what do you say?”

“I do hate just being another photo,” Alex admitted. 

“Les Mis is my favourite musical,” Julie said. 

“Like I’m not gonna revolt with my best friend,” Reggie said with a grin. 

“Well, boys and girls,” Luke grinned. “Let’s start a revolution.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty proud of this chapter ngl. And these posts are not gnna be regular, be warned. I'll try to update once a week but I've got school and stuff that comes first. But thanks for all the support!


	4. Bright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julie and her boys write a song and plan their rebellion.   
> Alex goes on his first LA not-a-date date.  
> and some wholesome Ray and Reggie parental bonding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HAVEN’T FORGOTTEN ABOUT THIS FIC I PROMISE! I GENUINELY LOVE IT!

_ Starting the band was really where things started going uphill, for me at least. I had four amazing friends, a guy who actually seemed to like me. Not to mention my sister, Mia.  _

_ Yeah, things were beginning to look up. _

Alex shifted through the hangers in his wardrobe as laughter filled the room, coming from his tablet which was propped up on his dresser. “I don’t think I've ever seen you so worked up.” Alex grumbled, before pulling out a shirt and showing it to the tablet. He was facetime-ing a blonde girl who was sat in a dorm room, spinning a pen between her fingers. “I really like that one.” He threw the shirt on his bed as the girl, Mia, carried on. “You know, I stand by my thought that pink would suit you.”

“We both know if mom and dad caught anything pink in my room, they’d throw it out immediately.”

“Say it’s one of your friends,” She shrugged. Alex scoffed. 

“Like that’s much better? They’ll tell me to leave that friend -assume the worst…” Alex’s voice grew quiet as he went back to his wardrobe. “Send me off….”

“I wouldn’t let them,” Mia told him firmly, cutting off any horrid thoughts that tried to creep into his mind. “You know I wouldn't.”

“Not much you can do from New York,” Alex pouted, pulling out a pair of jeans for her to see. 

Mia sighed, and shook her head. “They don’t go with the shirt.” Alex put the jeans back and kept searching. “And I’d find a way. I’d pay for a plane ticket to get you here myself if I had to.” An uneasy silence rested over the siblings. They kept cropping up ever since Alex came out to her, and he couldn’t help but assume the worst from them. Sure, Mia had been nothing but supportive, always talking about dragging him away from their parents and getting him to live with her. But then these silences would crop up. Ones filled with words they wanted to say, but couldn’t bring themselves to. “So, why am I giving you fashion advice, anyway?”

Alex closed his door. Sure, his dad was at work and his mom was out shopping, but he could never be too careful. Then, he moved to stand in front of the tablet so he was face to face with Mia. “I-I’m gonna see a friend.”

“You’re putting this much effort in for a friend?” She asked in disbelief, but smirked to herself when she saw Alex’s face flush red. “Oh, a  _ friend _ ,” she said with a wink. 

“Well, I mean- I just met him so-so it’s probably nothing anyway. I doubt he’s even….you know….”

“Gay?” She said helpfully. Alex nodded limply. 

“But he’s cool. A-A skater. He ran me over.” Mia was slightly alarmed by how big Alex’s grin was when he said the mystery boy ran him over but didn’t let it show too much. “With-with his board. I’m fine, don’t worry. I probably could’ve worded that better. His name’s Willie -and he isn’t the only friend I made!” Telling his parents about detention? Never gonna happen. But Mia wasn’t his parents, she was his rock. Or, was when she lived with them. “I got detention -not my fault and a story for another time. But, during detention we made a band and I met two guys called Luke and Reggie. Luke is the lead guitarist whilst Reggie plays bass. And Julie, the singer, can  _ sing! _ She’s amazing! And her best friend, Flynn, she’s a DJ.”

“Sounds like the move wasn’t so bad right?” 

“Be better if you were here,” Alex muttered. Mia looked down at her lap, before smiling at her little brother. 

“I gotta get some education. And I’ll be back home before you know it, okay? I promise.”

“Okay.”

“And tell me how the date goes.”

“It’s not a date!” Alex felt his face heat up as Mia laughed to herself before hanging up. He sighed to himself, looking at the clothes he had picked out. “It’s not a date.” He repeated. “But,  _ God!  _ I wish it was.”

Julie paused ‘Modern Family’ when she heard the door knock. She was sure Flynn said she had something to do with her moms, but didn’t really think anyone else would come round. It could’ve been  _ Tia _ , but Julie was sure she had pilates right now. 

She opened the door to find Luke standing there, with a guitar case and an old paperback notebook, grinning at her. “Hey!”

“Uh….hi?” 

“Thought we could work on some songs? You know, for the bash?” Julie internally groaned. She hadn’t told any of her family about the band, or the bash. They’d make a big deal out of it, like Flynn had, but worse. She just wanted everything to be normal again. And part of being normal was having friends round. So, she let him in and brought him to her mom’s old studio in the garden. 

“Whoa….” He muttered, looking around. “This place is awesome! And you said you don’t do much music.” He quickly sat down at the piano, looking over the song that was still there. “Did you write this -’Wake Up’?”

Julie quickly snatched the song away from him. “No- yes- kinda.” Luke raised an eyebrow at her. Julie sighed. “My mom started it,” She whispered. “I finished it.”

Luke shifted, nodding in understanding. “Guess your mom loves music too. Maybe we could get her help?”

“She….she  _ was _ in love with music,” Julie told him. Luke stared at her again, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. “She passed away.” 

Luke’s face fell. “I am... _ so _ sorry. I didn’t know-”

“It’s okay.” She nodded to herself and sat next to him, putting the song back. 

“Is...is that why you ran out of detention?” Julie nodded again. 

“It was the first time I’ve sung in just under a year,” She admitted quietly, before shaking her head. “But you came here to write songs, not hear my sob story.”

“If-if you need to talk…” Luke said, letting his words drift off, both knowing what he was saying. Luke had never been good at comfort, but he tried. That’s what counted, right?

“Let’s just get to work, yeah?” Julie asked, hoping to stop the pitying looks Luke was giving her. He cleared his throat and nodded. 

“Yeah- yeah, so, I’ve been brainstorming some ideas. And, I think I have something.” Julie sat and listened as Luke flicked through his songbook before landing on a dog-eared page. “We’ll rise, through the night. You and I, we will fight to shine together. Bright forever.” 

She nodded along, looking at the page with him and joining in. “And rise, through the night. You and I, we will fight to shine together-” 

“Go up high,” Luke told her. 

“Bright forever.” They finished the chorus, ending on a harmony that sounded just right. They turned to each and grinned. 

“That was awesome! You know, I’ve been working on a melody on piano-”

“You play too?” Luke asked with a teasing smile. “What can’t you do, Molina?”

She lightly shoved him before beginning to play. Luke flicked back a page and put it on the stand, motioning for Julie to sing. “In times that I doubted myself, I felt like I needed some help _ - _ I can’t sing that low, Luke.”

“We’ll transpose it,” He shrugged. 

“Or you could sing it? You have a great voice too, no reason to hide it away.” Luke shrugged and flicked through the pages of random lyrics before landing on a page with an ‘A-ha!’. He put it on the stand and waited eagerly for Julie to play again and sing. “Sometimes I think I’m falling down. I wanna hide, won’t call out _ - _ Wait-”

“Are you gonna actually finish a verse?” He teased. She stuck her tongue out at him before grabbing a pencil and looking at him for permission. He nodded and she changed some of the lyrics before playing again. 

“Sometimes I think I’m falling down. I wanna cry, I’m calling out for one last try to feel alive. And when I feel lost and alone, I know that I can make it home through the dark. Find a spark.”

“Yeah that’s better,” Luke admitted. “But how about instead of ‘one last try’ we could do ‘one more try’?”

“Okay,” She nodded. “And then Alex starts the build up to the chorus after ‘Find a spark’, but we need a bridge.”

The duo continued like that for longer than either realised, just going over different melodies and lyrics. Luke got out his guitar and began playing after a while. It was peaceful. 

Reggie, however, was not having a peaceful time. He was sat in his room, at his computer desk, spinning the chair gently from left to right as a line blinked at him on an empty word document. Well, it had a question, but that was it. Dot was at a friend’s house, which he was thankful for. Reggie couldn’t concentrate on whatever book they were reading in English on a good day, let alone when his parents were practically at each other’s throats. 

He flinched at the sound of something crashing downstairs, his father's booming voice coming right after. He could hear every syllable they were saying. Hell, the whole neighbourhood probably could. 

Usually, he’d go to Luke when things got like this. Reggie would have a good cry on his shoulder. Well, not really recently, he had grown so used to it all, he was more angry at them than upset. But Luke was writing songs with Julie, probably having a blast. He imagined them sitting at a piano, laughing, shoving each other playfully. Then, because his mind hated him, he imagined them leaning in, towards each other. 

Reggie stood up abruptly, shocking even himself. He refused to think like that. And besides, what did it matter to him? Him and Luke were best friends. The bestest of best friends. There was no reason for him to get so squeamish about the thought of him and Julie-  _ No! There was only one way to solve his problems, at least the current ones. _

Taking out his phone, he opened Snapchat and thanked God Luke always kept his geolocation on. He slipped past his parents pretty easily, they were pretty distracted, grabbed his bass and headed out, following the little map on his phone. 

When he arrived, Julie’s dad answered the door. He was tall, and not what he expected Julie’s dad to look like. “I’m looking for Julie?” Mr. Molina could see something was wrong with the boy, so let him inside, admitting to not know where she was but letting him stay till she showed up. Reggie sat awkwardly in the kitchen as Mr. Molina made them both cups of hot chocolate. 

“Thank you, Mr. Molina,” Reggie said as he took the mug from him. It was a Power Rangers mug, with ‘Carlos’ on the side. 

“Please, call me Ray.” Reggie nodded as Mr. Moli-  _ Ray _ got out a tablet. “I need a second opinion, do you mind?” Reggie shook his head as Ray turned the tablet round to show some pictures of a forest. He could see the back of a girl, he assumed it was Julie, as well as a young boy, a tall man he assumed to be Ray, and a woman with black bushy hair walking hand in hand with Ray. The light was streaming through the leaves, giving the family a sort of evangelical glow. 

“It’s really good,” Reggie told him. “Is this what you do? Photography?”

“Yeah,” Ray told him. “I assume you’re a musician.” Ray pointed to Reggie’s bass guitar, still in its case. He shrunk slightly, being reminded of the whole reason he was here. “Julie used to play. She played piano, sang -even wrote some songs.”

“What happened?” Reggie asked, taking a sip of his hot chocolate. 

“Her mother, Rosa….she passed away a-about a year ago.” Reggie wanted to hug Ray, then Julie, then whoever the little boy was. He assumed the boy was Julie’s little brother. He looked at Ray, expecting a heartbroken face, but found a soft nostalgic smile instead. “Julie and Rosa would spend hours in the studio out back. They'd come up with a million different songs. Sometimes Carlos would try to sing along -I remember one time Julie and her were playing, and Carlos tried to sing with his two front teeth missing. Everything came out like he was whistling it.” 

Reggie laughed along with Ray. It was nice, something he would never do with his own dad. His dad was too uptight, too firm. It was like the only emotion the man possessed was anger, whether it be running hot when he fought with someone, or running cold when he was passive aggressive. Ray wasn’t like that. He was kind, laughing along with Reggie and paying attention to him. It was such a small thing, but meant the world to the leather-clad bassist. 

Julie and Luke walked in then, laughing about something or other. As soon as Luke saw Reggie, he rushed to his side, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “Hey, man. What are you doing here?”

Reggie shrugged. “I wanted to help out.”

“We were just taking a small break,” Julie told him, already getting stuff out for a good lunch. “Oh, dad, this is Luke and Reggie.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Molina,” Luke said, removing his arm from Reggie’s shoulders and putting it out for Ray to shake. He did so with a smile.

“Please, call me Ray.” Ray then turned to Julie, giving her a kiss on the head. “I’m gonna head out for a photoshoot. You’ll be okay,  _ mija _ ?”

She turned to him with her arms folded and a playful smirk. “Dad, I’m almost seventeen. I’m sure I’ll survive a few hours home alone.”

“What are we?” Luke exclaimed. “Chopped liver?”

Julie playfully rolled her eyes before giving her dad a hug and letting him leave. She made three sandwiches, and put them in front of Luke and Reggie, keeping one plate for herself as she sat opposite the boys. 

“Your dad’s cool,” Reggie told her. 

“Oh yeah,” She agreed, swallowing her bite. “But surely your parents are awesome too, right?”

Luke and Reggie shared a look before turning back to Julie. “They’re not the worst,” Luke shrugged. 

Alex eyed the locked door to the empty museum warily as Willie smirked next to him. “You know what?” Alex sighed. “I don’t think this is about art. I think you just like breaking the rules.”

“Maybe,” Willie shrugged, smirking at Alex. That smirk alone could turn him into goo. “You should try it sometime.”

Ale looked back at the door and sighed again. “We’re going in there, aren’t we?” Willie didn’t answer, instead began picking the lock, which did not calm Alex’s nerve at all. “It worries me that you know how to pick locks.”

“When your mom runs a security firm, you pick up some tricks.”

“Bet she wouldn’t like you breaking and entering.”

Willie shrugged as the door opened. He stood up and took Alex’s hand, interlacing their fingers. “What she doesn’t know won’t kill her.”

And that was how Alex found himself inside an abandoned museum with a cute skater-boy who did tricks over all the crates and building equipment. Alex was positive it wasn’t safe, and that Willie would break something, or they’d get caught. How would he explain it to his parents?  _ Sorry mom, dad. But you see, I have a good defence. I’m really gay and Willie’s really cute.  _ That would not go over well. 

Willie finally came to a stop in front of Alex, who was standing next to a sort of bench made of concrete. “Dude, move that bench over here,” Willie asked, pointing to a small bit of the floor that was elevated. “I’m gonna try and jump it.”

Alex looked at the concrete bench, then at his muscleless arms, then at Willie. “Yeah I can’t do that.” Willie smiled at him. “I can barely do more than four push-ups so concrete? Not happening.” Willie gave him a soft, pleading look and Alex tried to lift the bench, only getting strained noises and slightly hurt hands. “See?” He chuckled with Willie. 

“You just need to focus,” He reassured Alex, who just chuckled. 

“I’ve always had a hard time focusing,” Alex admitted. “Yeah, I’ve always been a little bit anxious, then I came out to my parents and they moved me halfway across the country. Which did not calm me down.” 

Willie chuckled along with him, before putting his hand out in front of Alex, and his other on his back. Alex, hesitantly, put his hand on Willie’s and allowed him to help him pick up his side of the bench. By some miracle, the two of them picked up his side, both cheering at their small victory. 

“Okay, you have ten seconds to pick up the other side,” Alex told him. Willie chuckled and rushed to the other side and Alex’s back felt slightly cold without Willie’s hand. But before he could dwell on that, they were moving the bench next to the higher floor. 

“Boom!” Willie cheered once they put the bench down. “Stay there.” He quickly grabbed his board, pointing at Alex to stay still. “Stay right there.” Willie rushed off, coming back around a few seconds later, and jumping over the bench on his board before stopping. “Man, that felt good.” Willie sat down on the bench, taking his helmet off and running a hand through his hair, before spotting Alex, who had his hands in his pockets and kept glancing around with his entire body being tense. “You’re wired a little tight.” Alex took a seat next to Willie with a soft sigh, putting his hands in his lap. “Is that why you started playing drums? To help you with your….anxiety?”

“Yeah,” Alex shrugged. “Pretty much. There’s no better way of working through your problems than wailing on some drums, right?”

“Hey, do you know what makes me feel better?” Willie asked him, standing up again. “Yelling. In. Museums.” Then, Willie let out a loud yell, that sent Alex in a mild panic, looking around to see if anybody was coming. 

“Dude, you’re gonna get us caught!”

“Don’t worry,” Willie reassured him. “My mom’s working security here. This place is empty. So you try.” Alex took a breath before letting out a small, weak yell that wouldn’t frighten a bird. “You gotta stand up,” Willie told him, grabbing his jacket and pulling him up. “You gotta put your heart into it, man. Ready?” Willie let out a small but loud yell. Alex copied him. They carried on until they were both yelling at the same time until there was no air left inside their lungs. “Feels good, right?” Willie asked him with a soft smile. 

“Yeah,” Alex admitted. “It does.” 

Carrie brushed her curly strawberry blonde hair off her shoulder and sat on the floor, near the large mirror-wall to grab her pink bedazzled water bottle. So far, rehearsal for Dirty Candy had gone well. The girls’ movements were sharp and in sync, it was going to be fine. Julie could have her five minutes in the spotlight, that was fine. Carrie would steal the show after, she always did. She always had to. 

Still, did Principal Lessa really have to cut her set in half? She had spent the entire morning stressing over a bowl of weetabix, with banana slices on top, as she redid the set list she had planned almost two months ago. And now her choreographer, RJ. Durell, had to reorganise the dances and everyone was feeling the stress. The Halloween Bash was in a week or two and this had thrown everyone off their rhythm. 

The spot next to her became occupied by a mexican girl with black girl in a tight ponytail. Kayla was Carrie’s right hand girl, and the closest thing to a friend Carrie had anymore. “Everything’s looking good, don’t you think?”

“I don’t need ‘good’, I need ‘perfect’,” Carrie snapped at her. She took a deep breath and ran a hand over her face as Kayla fiddled with her trainer’s laces. “I’m sorry. Just stressed from changing the set list and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”

“‘S fine,” Kayla shrugged, looking back up at Kayla. “And relax, we’ll kill it and it’s a bunch of nobodies opening for us.”

“I shouldn’t have to do anything for nobodies,” Carrie grumbled, picking her water bottle up again and taking a sip before pouting. “Especially when they ruined my new shirt. My dad got that for me. All the way from  _ Milan! _ From when he went on his last world tour.”

“When's his next one?” Kayla asked. Carrie shrugged. 

“A few months, I think. But he promised he’d be at Rising Star.” Kayla nodded, mentally reminding herself to begin setting up her room so Carrie could stay over. Sure, she was old enough to stay home for a few months, but didn’t mean she liked it. Who would? A big house with barbed wire around it, it felt more like a prison to Carrie than any home. 

“Anyway, you can’t hate the band that much,” Kayla told Carrie as she put her purple water bottle down. “I mean, you and Julie used to be best friends, right?”

Carrie huffed, standing up abruptly and clapping to get the other girls’ attention, as well as RJ’s. “We’re gonna run ‘Wow’ from the top, okay?”

Kayla sighed but got up and into position. She’d get Carrie to open up about Julie, even if it killed her. 

“Shine together! Bright forever!” 

Reggie let out an excited cry as Luke and his guitars died down. Julie and Luke joined him, letting out excited laughter as Luke jumped onto a coffee table. Julie turned to him with a glare. “Get down, Luke. You’re gonna break it.” Luke jumped off with a wary look, walking over to Reggie to put his guitar down next to Reggie’s. The boys shared a look before bursting into laughter again. Luke turned to the both of them with a grin. 

“Where’s the bathroom?”

“Just through there,” Julie told him, pointing to a door in the corner of the room. Luke thanked her before rushing off. Reggie and Julie took seats on the couch. “Could we actually do this?” She asked Reggie carefully. “Start a revolution, I mean.”

Reggie shrugged. “I don’t know Flynn,” He admitted. “But I know Luke. And when he starts something, especially to do with music, he finishes it. So if he says he’s gonna start a revolution, I believe him. The only question is whether it’ll be planned or not. Most likely not.”

“Flynn’s the same,” Julie replied. “Just...she thinks things through.” Julie looked towards the bathroom door with a thoughtful expression, her eyebrows pulled together. “Flynn and Luke are either gonna be a dream team or a complete trainwreck.” Reggie chuckled. “I just hope this band isn’t gonna be their entire plan. Because if it is, their plan is basically ruined because of me.”

“Don’t say that,” Reggie told her. “Your voice is  _ killer _ ! Once in a lifetime thing, easily.”

“It’s not that,” Julie told him, fiddling with her fingers. “I can’t go on stage and perform in front of an audience. It’s terrifying. Even back when my mom was around, I’d only ever sing in this room, with her. But now I have to go on stage in front of our entire school and just sing an original song?”

“You won’t be alone,” He reassured her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve got an amazing band right behind you. We won’t let you fall, I promise.” The bathroom door swung open and Luke walked back in. “What took you so long?”

“You don’t wanna know,” Luke admitted, before clasping his hands together with an infectious grin. “Wanna run through the song again?” Reggie and Julie jumped up, grabbing their instruments and beginning to go over ‘Bright’ again. 

The large barn-like doors opened again before they could settle into the rhythm to show Alex with a grin. It faltered slightly when he saw them all getting ready to play. “You guys rehearsing without me?” He didn’t sound exactly upset, more surprised. 

“Well….me and Luke were writing songs,” Julie said, beginning to explain. “Then Reggie showed up and helped with the bassline. And now you’re here so it’s a rehearsal! And ‘Bright’ is awesome.”

Alex nodded along, still grinning even as he began playing the drums. He couldn’t help it. Things were finally falling into place, and the move wasn’t as bad as he thought. He had four great friends, he had Willie. Oh God,  _ Willie _ . It honestly wasn’t fair that one person could be that cute and funny and  _ perfect _ .

“I think Alex is off in dream-land,” Reggie teased. “What’s got you in such a good mood?”

And just like that, Alex blurted out everything from his not-a-date with Willie, not even fully registering what he was saying. It was only after that he realised everything he said and began biting his lip in anticipation for their response. Why couldn’t he have thought it through and changed Willie to a girl for the story? He was smart enough to do that before.

“Aw, Alex has a crush,” Luke sang teasingly. 

“Can we meet him?” Julie asked, practically jumping from excitement. 

“You-You guys don’t care I’m gay?” Alex couldn’t stop the anxiety filling his voice, but the trio just brushed it off. 

“No way,” Reggie told him. “Why would we? Nothing wrong with that.”

“Besides,” Luke added with a knowing look at Reggie. “Be kinda hypocritical if we did.” Alex sent them a confused look, only making Reggie chuckle to himself. 

“I’m bi, thought you knew from-” Reggie gestured to his red flannel wrapped around his waist and his leather jacket and cuffed jeans. “Well, from everything.”

Alex let out a soft laugh before nodding at Alex. “And I’m pan, if you didn’t know.”

Julie shrugged from her seat behind the piano, smiling at the boys. “And I don’t know what I am, just that it’s not straight.” 

Alex laughed at them, a genuine laugh. And soon, the studio was filled with the band's laughter and for the first time since Mia left, Alex didn’t feel scared or alone. Sure, maybe his family sucked, but maybe this could be his new family. As crazy and weird as they were.

Flynn grinned as lights flashed over the mass of teenage bodies in different costumes dancing to the beat of the music pounding throughout the gym. She had on casual clothes, and her hair in it’s typical dreadlocks with a bobcat headband on and a belt that held cans of Sunset Lemonade around her waist. Someone tapped her shoulder and she turned to see Luke, Reggie and Alex all in different costumes. “Did you guys seriously not pick a group costume?” She asked. 

“Well I wanted to go as musician spirits,” Luke said. His face was powder white and a sleeveless suit with beat-up old trainers. “But these two didn’t get the memo.” 

Flynn glanced at Alex and Reggie. Reggie had his face painted a dark green, like decaying flesh, and had torn parts of his clothes off and messed up his hair slightly. Clearly going for a zombie. Alex, on the other hand, was wearing a white suit with a pink sash across him, his hair gelled. Clearly a disney prince. Flynn couldn’t help but chuckle to herself.

“But that’s not the point,” Alex said. All three boys had worried faces, which didn’t exactly make Flynn feel confident. “Have you seen Julie?”

“I haven’t seen her,” She admitted, biting the inside of her cheek before quickly rushing out; “But she wouldn’t ditch!”

“I don’t think so either,” Reggie agreed. “At least, not on purpose. But….” He glanced at the boys and then Flynn. “She does have pretty bad stage fright. Maybe she got too overwhelmed.”

“Do you think we pushed her too far?” Luke asked worriedly. 

“You guys looking for Julie?” They turned to see Nick at the nearby snack table, dressed up as a chocolate bar. “I saw her running to the bathroom a few minutes ago. Looked like she was upset.”

The four looked to each other, before rushing off. 

Before the three boys could enter the girl’s bathroom, Flynn put her arm out and stopped them, giving them a disgusted look before heading inside. She started by crouching and looking at people’s shoes to find Julie, before seeing her white sneakers with doodles covering them. She stood up and knocked gently on the stall door. “Jules? You okay?” Her heart ached as a soft sob escaped the stall. 

“We’re coming in,” Luke declared as the trio walked inside. Flynn sighed heavily but didn’t put up a fight and let Luke try to help Julie out. 

“Julie, it’ll be okay,” He said softly. 

“I can’t do it, I’m sorry,” She sobbed through the door. 

“Look, we need you! You’re amazing!” It was silent in the room. “Are you coming out?”

“Read the room, dude,” Julie snapped. “And you guys shouldn’t be here.”

Luke stepped back, letting Reggie try to talk her down. “It’s Reg.” He put a hand to the door. “Look, Jules. You’re gonna kill it, okay? And-and when we’re done nobodies even gonna want Dirty Candy, they’ll just want us for the whole night-”

“Not,” Julie said, her breathing becoming more staggered and hitchy. “Helping.”

Reggie awkwardly stood there, trying to help, as Alex looked at Flynn’s costume and saw the lemonades. “Hey, can I borrow one of those?” He asked. Flynn glanced down at the cans and gave him one. He pulled Reggie back and put the can over the top, waiting to feel Julie take it. “I know you’re scared. I am too. It’s a lot of people. But….but we won’t let you fall, okay? We’ve got your back, and you’ve got ours. ‘Shine together’, right?” 

He stepped back in anticipation, before hearing the can being opened and Julie gulping down the drink. Luke patted Alex’s back before Reggie pulled him into a side hug, both cheering for Julie and thanking Alex. Julie stepped out, wearing a cheerleader outfit, with her mascara and eyeliner running down her face. Julie winced before pulling Julie into a tight hug. 

“I got you girl,” Flynn said, letting her go, before pushing the boys out with Julie’s help. The trio waited in the hallway instead, after Luke told them to hurry up. 

“Is it true, what you said?” Reggie asked Alex. “About being scared?”

“Yeah,” He admitted, shoving his hands in his trouser pockets. “This entire night is kinda making my anxiety go crazy.”

“Well, we got you, bro,” Luke reassured him, wrapped an arm around Alex’s shoulders. “And we’re gonna kill it, no doubt.”

“Thanks guys,” Alex told them. Julie and Flynn left the bathroom, with Julie looking a lot better than before. 

“Let’s hustle boys,” She said as her and Flynn led them back to the gym. 

Julie sat at the keyboard, her fingers resting on the keys, but not actually playing. In front of her was a mic, right in her face to pick up her voice so everyone could hear. _ Everyone _ . She looked out to the audience, all those eyes. All looking at her, waiting for her to mess up, to stutter, to run and hide like she always did. Her mom wasn’t there this time to tell her it was going to be okay. Neither were her dad or Carlos. She was alone. 

“Jules.” Her eyes landed on Flynn at the light desk, giving her a thumbs up and a massive grin. A wave of relief washed over her. She wasn’t alone, Flynn was there. Then her eyes moved to the rest of the stage. She wasn’t alone. There was Alex on the drums, clearly working through his own panic. There was Luke on his guitar, raring to go. There was Reggie, grinning at them all and actually looking peaceful. She wasn’t alone. 

She gave a thumbs up to Flynn and the music stopped and a single spotlight was on Julie. 

_ Deep breath. You got this. _

“Um, hi. We’re Sunset Curve, and, uh, this is a song called ‘Bright’.” It was so silent Julie was sure she could hear someone cough from the back of the room, or a pin drop. But that didn’t matter, couldn’t matter. 

She began to play, the keys and chords filling the gym before she took another breath and began to sing. All doubts leaving her mind. “Sometimes I think I’m falling down. I wanna cry. I’m calling out for one more try to feel alive.” Another wave of relief fell over her as Alex’s drums kicked in, gentle, just keeping the timing really. But they were there. She wasn’t alone. “Life is a risk but I will take it. Close my eyes and jump.” She risked a look at the audience. They seemed to be getting into the song, but it was too slow for people to really dance. Julie smirked to the boys. “Together I think that we can make it. Come on, let’s run.” 

As Julie stood up, Flynn switched the lighting so the entire band was visible. Luke and Reggie quickly began jumping around the stage with Julie, Alex finding his calm through the electric energy they all radiated. 

In the audience, Carrie had to admit they weren’t horrible. Next to her, Kayla and Nick were dancing with each other to the song. She was half-tempted to join them, but that only reminded her of the dance parties she and Julie had. “Quit it,” She snapped at them. “They are the enemy.”

Kayla and Nick shared a sorrowful look, but stopped dancing. 

“Life is a risk but we will take it,” Reggie sang with Luke as they shared a mic. The entire performance was incredible but being so close to Luke, close enough he could feel Luke’s breath and see the sweat on his forehead and the brightness of his eyes. This was definitely his favourite part. It intoxicated him, becoming drunk on the happiness and not moving until Luke pushed him away. 

The song ended too quickly for everyone but Flynn, who jumped on stage as soon as Julie motioned to her. “Now it’s time for a few words from our, uh...manager, Flynn Baxter-Hale.” Flynn took Julie’s mic and turned to the crowd, no hint of fear, as Julie, Luke and Reggie began passing out cans of Sunset Lemonade. 

“Pass these back, come on. Hurry up!” Flynn began. “We wanna shine a light on a recent event that affects us all. We wanna talk about…” Alex did a drum roll for added dramatic effect. “Lemonade.” The boxes were empty, so Julie, Luke and Reggie got ready to perform another song as Flynn continued. “It’s about this school, treating some people like they matter more than others. Like the only thing that gets you seen is how much money and influence your parents have.” In the audience, Carrie shifted uncomfortably. “This school is treating money like it matters more than a school newspaper, or chess club. Or any one of us.” The audience began cheering out, agreeing with Flynn who was clearly just getting started. Alex adjusted the mic in front of his face, ready to start up another song. “We  _ all _ deserve to feel like we matter. Because, ladies and gentlemen,  _ we do matter _ !”

The audience's cheers of approval were drowned out by Alex, Luke and Reggie starting up another song. “Be heard, be strong, be proud!” 

“I wanna make some noise!” Julie sang, sharing a mic with Flynn. 

Soon enough, the audience were singing along to the chorus. Yelling and screaming in agreement that it wasn’t fair. Carrie could feel the noise beginning to consume her, and part of her agreed with what was being said. Always being compared to her dad, how amazing he was and how he changed the industry. She wasn’t him and she’d never be him. And she didn’t need to be put against him at every corner. 

Meanwhile, Principal Lessa was furious. She had trusted Flynn, trusted that it was a way to help students, not cause chaos. Lessa ran the school as best she could, and to keep something going, money was needed. And sometimes, that did force her hand. But she did not deserve this tyranny. 

She stormed over to the sound desk to find some scrawny teen there in a roman military outfit. “Shut this down,” She demanded. The kid let out a surprised squeak before rushing to try to do something. But it just wasn’t quick enough. The crowd was getting more and more restless as the band continued to play. Lessa, knowing nothing about the technical side of music, pulled the plug to the desk and the music stopped, except Alex’s drums. But he quickly stopped when everyone else stopped. 

Carrie leapt onto the stage. “Party continues at mine!” The crowd cheered again and left the band looking at each other in disbelief and anger. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n: Sorry this took so long, school stuff kept piling on and I was determined to get the dance in this as well. This entire chapter is over 6,000 words so I hope that's enough of an apology to forgive my absence. Once again I HAVEN’T FORGOTTEN ABOUT THIS FIC I PROMISE! I GENUINELY LOVE IT!


	5. This Band Is Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the fallout of their first gig, Sunset Curve is no more. At least, unless Flynn and Luke have anything to say about it. And it seems like the other students don't want Sunset Curve to go away either.

_ Whilst the students may have heard our message loud and clear and saw what we saw, not everyone was on board with it.  _

_ I don’t see what she took such offense to.  _

“Well, well, well,” Principal Lessa said, sitting in her chair behind her desk in her office as Reggie, Luke, Alex and Julie all stood in a line in front of her. “That was quite a show you all put on at the Halloween Bash. You’re very talented. Very. But, just for your information, the decisions I make are for the good of this school. Like letting you, Ms. Molina, back into the music program after you didn’t participate for almost a year. Or, not suspending you two, Mr Patterson and Mr Hollow, after far too many chances were given. And Mr. Williams, I did not expect you to be such a troublemaker. Skipping your first day and now this? What you all did Friday night was completely, completely disruptive. You promised they’d be no funny business.”

“But it wasn’t funny,” Luke spoke up. “Al-alright? We just spoke our minds. And-And you shut us down-”

“Yes, I shut you down,” She cut in. “Because, once again, the decisions I make are for the good of this school. And, with that good in mind, Sunset Curve is finished-” the group made loud noises of protest, mostly from Luke and Reggie, but Lessa’s voice thundered over them. “You will not use the music room. You will not use the instruments. If I hear so much as a hum coming from the locker room showers, I will suspend you. Or, in the case of Mr. Patterson and Mr. Hollow, expel. Understood? Good. Dismissed.”

“She can’t stop us, alright?” Luke said as soon as they left the office.

“She threatened to expel you,” Alex reminded him. “I wouldn’t be challenging her if I was you.”

“No rockstar needs a high school diploma.” Alex sighed and let his face fall into his hands as Luke turned to the group. “And our music speaks to people. You saw them at the bash! We got Lessa scared-”   


“Okay,” Julie cut him off. “Say we did continue, where would we rehearse? Or perform?” Luke remained silent, proving Julie’s point. 

“It’s probably a good thing, anyway,” Alex said, fiddling with his jacket’s zipper. “I mean, I’m already on thin ice with my folks. If-If they found out about a band….?”

“Yeah, I’d be grounded,” Reggie agreed. Luke shot him an apologetic look as he continued. “Besides, I can’t exactly just bring Dot to every rehearsal.”

“Not to mention I had a panic attack before the bash,” Julie chimed in. “It was fun, Luke, but….but it’s just not gonna happen.” 

“Guys,” Luke tried to get their attention as they all began walking in different directions. “Guys! It’s not over!”

Julie adjusted her goggles before turning back to the beakers in front of her. Next to her, Flynn was leaning on the table, jotting down the results. “I’m just saying, there’s a reason why you only started playing again with those boys. They got you back in the  music program!”

“I got myself in the program, thank you very much,” Julie told her. “Look, the song was awesome. But we went too far.  _ You _ went too far.” Flynn tapped her pen against her open book, staying silent. “I almost got suspended. Let alone the fact I almost threw up and had a panic attack before the gig. I’m not a performer, I’m a songwriter. And-and even if I was a performer, the show did nothing. Everything is the exact same as it was Friday morning.”

“I’m sorry, Jules,” Flynn told her honestly. 

After class, Julie and Flynn walked to their lockers side by side. Their walk was silent, and the weirdness of it was not lost on them. They were best friends, they didn’t fight. But this was starting to feel like one. 

Before either girl could lament over the silence, Nick rushed up to them. “Julie, you were  _ amazing _ at the bash! One of the best bands I’ve ever seen.”

“Thanks….” Julie replied, beginning to fidget with her bag strap. Flynn noticed and grabbed her shoulders as she turned to Nick. 

“Thanks for the feedback but Jules is very busy right now.” She urged Julie to move past Nick and towards their lockers. “See ya later.”

Julie let a chuckle burst from her lips, her hand just in front as Flynn gave her wide eyes with a grin. Flynn shook her head and wrapped an arm around Julie’s shoulders, looking around the hall before stopping abruptly. “What?” 

Flynn pointed to the inside of someone’s locker. Written in black marker where lyrics. Julie’s lyrics. ‘Rise Through the Night’ Julie blinked in shock as the locker was abruptly closed, before pulling Flynn down the hall. 

“Did you see that?” Flynn asked with a grin, pointing inside someone else’s locker. “And there -and  _ there _ !”

“I- I don’t-”

_ “Your words spoke to them, Jules!” _ Flynn had grabbed her shoulders, stopping in the middle of the hallway. “Sure, Lessa may have shut us down, but your lyrics spoke to people, touched them to the point where they wrote them in their lockers. Julie-”

Flynn was cut off as some kid pushed between them. The girls gave each other sheepish smiles before walking down the hall again. “It means nothing.” Julie shook her head firmly. “I mean, Reggie has Backstreet lyrics in his locker.”

“Backstreet could have some sort of impact on his life,” Flynn replied, pointing her finger at Julie. “You don’t know.” Julie let out a soft scoff, rolling her eyes playfully at Flynn before stopping at her locker. 

The lunchroom was loud, just like every other day. Gossip and random stories drifted across the air above Luke as he rested his chin in his arms. He pouted, staring at the food on his tray with a sour look. From his left side, Reggie bit the inside of his cheek as he turned from Luke to his own food, taking a bite of his sandwich. From across them, Alex glanced at Luke, and then to Reggie, silently asking if Luke was okay. Reggie shrugged as a reply, before grinning to himself as he grabbed two straws and nudged Luke. He put them in his mouth, pretending to be a Walrus as Luke watched, his only response being a huff as he turned back to his tray. The straws fell from Reggie’s mouth as he pouted. 

Alex turned from the pair, his mouth dry as guilt began to fill his stomach. He couldn’t be in the band, it’d ruin everything. He had a good life, a good family. It’d be selfish to go and ruin it. And for what? So he could carry on being constantly anxious and gay? Only with everyone actually knowing. 

His eyes drifted around the cafeteria and landed on a group of kids laughing as they put up a sign over the clock on the wall with the entrance and exit. He couldn’t read it fully until they finished putting it up, but when they did he felt himself gasp. 

“What?” Reggie asked, the straws once again falling from his mouth. 

“Look,” Alex pointed lamely to the banner that said, in big golden letters, ‘WE’LL SHINE TOGETHER, BRIGHT FOREVER’. Luke looked up at it, a smile growing steadily across his face. 

“Wait-” Reggie blinked, reading the banner again. “Those are our lyrics, right?” 

Luke, not turning around, patted Reggie’s chest, his grin firmly planted on his face. “Yeah, they’re our lyrics. And they’re on a banner in the cafeteria!” He turned to Reggie and Alex, putting his elbows on the table as he carried on talking. The fire behind his eyes burned even brighter. “Look, boys. We matter. And people can see that, they hear what we have to say and agree. People care ‘bout us. So...So we can’t just quit on them!”

Reggie was nodding along, his own grin spread on his face as Luke’s energy infected him. Alex, however, reached for his bag with an apologetic smile, the memories of his parents finding out Mia wanted to study music playing in the back of his mind. “I-I got class.”

Luke swung the front door closed and hopped onto one of the stools for the breakfast bar as his mom finished the dishes. She didn’t turn around, simply sensing that her only son was there. “You missed dinner.”

“Yeah, sorry.” Luke scratched the back of his head as his mom passed him a plate from the counter, filled with pasta bolognese, with a knowing smile on her face. He grinned at her as he took a fork and began to dig into the cold food. “I was at Reggie’s.” 

“What have I told you about swallowing before speaking?” She playfully glared at him as he swallowed guiltily, before giving her a cheeky smile. 

“Sorry again,” He said, picking at the pasta with his fork. “Time got away from me, y’know? We were working on this cool riff for a new song.” 

Emily, his mom, smiled at him as she leant on the breakfast bar. “I know, time always seems to get away from you around Reggie.” Luke looked down at his food to avoid his mother’s gaze. “You need to concentrate. You need to get your grades up if you want to get into a good college.”

“I’ll be fine, mom,” He reassured her, eating some more of his dinner. “Your cooking is still the best ever.”

“It’s even better when it’s hot,” She teased, before her face fell. “So...I got a call from your principal today.” Luke’s face fell as he tried to give some excuse. “No, Luke. You’re one misstep away from expulsion.”

“We were just speaking our minds-”

“And it almost got you kicked out of school.” Emily’s voice was firm, cold. Luke rarely heard her voice like that, void of any warmth or lightness. It scared him. “You need an education-”

“I don’t need some college degree to be a rockstar, mom.” He meant for the comment to be light, but Emily just looked at her son, as if asking if he truly thought that. 

“You need a fallback, honey.” Luke scoffed and pushed his plate forwards. “Not everyone makes it-”

“I’m not hungry,” Luke told her quietly, before heading up to his room.

Alex sat down in a corner booth with the rest of the group in a noisy pizzeria. In the centre of the table was a cheese pizza that already had three slices gone, one of which was in Reggie’s hand as he tried to get the dripping cheese into his mouth. Alex turned to Luke with a sour expression, tired of repeating himself. “I’m not joining the band.”

“I didn’t call the meeting,” He replied from his seat between Reggie and Julie. 

“I did,” Flynn said. She was sat between Alex and Julie. “I’m guessing you all saw the posters and stuff written in people’s lockers-”

“Wait, they wrote the lyrics in their lockers?” Reggie asked in disbelief. Flynn nodded before continuing. 

“Look, people have heard us, okay? They heard you guys! We got Principal Lessa scared and that’s why she shut us down. No revolution is ever taken sitting down.”

The others glanced between each other, only Luke really on board with the idea. “Where would we even rehearse?” Reggie asked her finally. Flynn simply turned to Julie with a puppy dog look as Julie shook her head. 

“No, no way- it was hard enough lying to my dad when they came to work on ‘Bright’. How could I do that to him daily?” 

“Simple, tell him you’re in a band,” Luke replied. “Your studio is amazing! It’s perfect for us.”

“It was my mom’s,” Julie told him. “And I can’t tell my dad I’m in a band because he’ll blow it out of proportion. He’ll make it into a big deal and probably throw a party to celebrate and ignite our entire family and- and I can’t deal with that right now.”

“Oh come on!” Flynn begged, huggin Julie’s arm. “Your mom would’ve wanted this! You just got music back into your life, you can’t get rid of it now!”

“Flynn,” Alex said, pulling her off Julie. Julie sent him a thankful smile. “And where would we perform? A music revolution is pretty pointless if we can’t even perform.”

Luke and Flynn smirked at each other, a certain type of smirk that Alex recognised from his sister. “Flynn made a demo out of our performance,” Luke explained. “I gave it to Diego, who runs this place and he says we can start performing here regularly in two weeks. Every Friday night.”

“A-A regular gig?” Julie stumbled out, beginning to shake her hands in front of her like she was trying to dry them. “I barely made it through the first! Do you not remember the panic attack? And-And Carrie comes here, she’ll ruin everything. That’s if I don’t first- Oh God this is a mistake-”

“Jules!” Flynn grabbed Julie’s shoulders as the boys sent her worried looks. “None of that will happen. You know why? Because these three idiots will have your back.”

“Yeah, it’s kinda the whole point of a band,” Luke reassured her. 

“And it’s not like you’ll be the only one panicking,” Alex added jokingly. 

“Is it just me or does this pizza taste weird?” Reggie asked,putting his half eaten slice down before turning to julie. “And obviously I’ll have your back. But if we’re gonna do this band thing, we have to be all in. We can’t half-ass this.”

“You know I’m in,” Luke told him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. 

“Let’s make some changes, boys,” Flynn grinned, high-fiving Luke and Reggie. 

“I…”Julie trailed off, glancing around the table. “I can’t. I can’t go through all that again-I‘m sorry.”

“Yeah,my folks already think I’m at Catholic Club after school,” Alex told them. 

“That’s a thing?” Luke asked, his arm still around Reggie’s shoulders. 

“Unfortunately,” Alex sighed. 

“I’m sorry man,” Reggie said, turning to Luke. “The band is dead.” 

The group got up and left as Flynn paid the check and headed out with them. She wanted to help, to try and resurrect the one thing that seemed to bring Julie’s smile back, besides them throwing popcorn at a TV screen at every bad joke in old sitcoms. Instead, she left things worse than before. 

When she got outside, Reggie was sat on a brick wall with his head in his hands whilst Alex apologised to Luke. Julie walked over to Flynn and put her arms out for a hug, which Flynn happily gave her. “I want to, Luke,” Alex said, scratching his arm before catching himself and letting his hand drop. “I can’t, okay? My parents aren’t as cool as yours.”

“Whoever said my parents were cool?” Luke asked. 

“Hey, guys-”

“Look, we’re sorry Luke,” Julie said, cutting Reggie off. “It just wasn’t meant to be.” Reggie stood up in a huff and forced Luke’s head to look up above the door to a giant banner that read ‘BE HEARD, BE STRONG, BE PROUD’. Everyone else followed Luke’s gaze to see the banner, letting out small gasps as they saw. It was one thing that the students were supporting them but this? It was something else. Something out of a movie. 

Luke grinned from ear to ear, all his pearly teeth on show as he kept staring at the banner. “What did we say? They heard us.”

Julie wiped a tear away as she rested her head on Flynn’s shoulder. “Mom would’ve loved this.”

“Maybe we do matter….”Alex wondered aloud. Flynn squeezed his shoulder. 

“Of course we do.”

Reggi turned to Luke before wrapping hikm in a tight embrace, Luke hugging him back. “This band is back!”

Flynn started to beatbox a tune as Reggie let go of Luke. Alex smiled to himself, beginning to slap himself to create a sport of drumbeat. Julie turned to Luke and Reggie. “C’mon boys.”

Luke put a hand on Reggie’s shoulder as he laughed. “A 1,2,3,4!”

“Can you, can you hear me?” Reggie sang, jumping onto the wall behind them.

“Loud and clear,” Julie sang back. 

“We gotta get, gotta get ready!”

“‘Cause it’s been years!” Luke sang as him and Julie climbed onto the wall and began walking down with Flynn and Alex walking on the pavement. 

“Whoa! This band is back-”

“Whoa!” The trio began to harmonise, before Alex joined in as well. “This band is back. Whoo-hoo. Whoo-hoo. Awhoo-hoo. Whoo-hoo. Awhoo-hoo. Whoo-hoo. Awhoo-hoo. Whoo-hoo!”

“Can you-” Julie sang before the boys cut her off. 

“Yes we can.”

“Can you hear me?” She leapt off the wall and began to dance with Flynn. 

“Loud and clear!” Reggie leapt off the wall too, unnecessarily trucking his knees up before landing with a slight stumble. 

“We gotta get,” Julie sang as she began to dance with all of them. “Gotta get ready!”

“‘Cause it’s been years!” They all sang at the top of their lungs, besides Flynn who was beatboxing still. “Whoa! This band is back. Whoo-hoo. Whoo-hoo. Awhoo-hoo. Whoo-hoo. Awhoo-hoo. Whoo-hoo. Awhoo-hoo. Whoo-hoo!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to post this sooner but I was moving and then life threw a complete curveball. Originally this chapter was gonna be longer but I think it's fine how it is and I didn't want you guys to wait any longer. Thanks for all the kudos and comments and how this has blown up! Seriously, thank you all so much.   
> Also, next chapter we get to see some Ruke, Julie and Flynn (I don't know their ship name) and Dot returns! Hopefully it shouldn't take too long to write up. I have the chapter planned out don't worry!


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